kozhikode l monday l november 09, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 28 l city EDITION Data of 2 crore bigbasket users on sale on dark web A hacker has put customer data, including contact details, on sale for about K30 lakh, cyber intelligence firm Cyble said email ids, addresses leaked: Cyble According to Cyble, which routinely monitors the dark web, the data put on sale includes names of customers, email IDs, password hashes, contact numbers, addresses, date of birth, location and IP addresses. The data breach occurred on October 14, but was detected only 17 days later on October 31. After validation, Cyble informed BigBasket on November 1 ■ $3bn how to check if you have been affected ■ BigBasket said it has lodged a complaint with the Bengaluru Cyber Cell and is evaluating the authenticity of the claim If you are worried that your BigBasket data is compromised, you can register on Cyble’s data breach monitoring platform, AmiBreached.com, to ascertain your risks expected size of India’s online grocery segment by year end CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Army officer, 3 jawans killed in J&K encounter Forces foil infiltration attempt by armed terrorists near LoC in one of fiercest shootouts in the state this year, kill three sector noticed suspicious movement, about 3.5 km from the Line of Control (LoC). On inspection, it was found that an infiltration attempt was underway The troops . confronted the infiltrators, leading to an encounter, which lasted until 4 am. A BSF jawan, identified as constable Sudip Sarkar, was killed. One terrorist was also killed while others managed to slip away after three hours of gunfight. F aya z Wan i @ Srinagar Three Army personnel, including one of officer rank, and a Border Security Force constable were killed during an operation to thwart an infiltration bid by a group of heavily-armed terrorists in J&K’s Machil sector on Sunday. Three of the terrorists were eliminated. According to defence spokesman in Srinagar, Colonel Rajesh Kalia, it all started around 1 am when a joint team of Army and BSF troops guarding the Machil 290 JOE BIDEN More troops were then rushed to the area in the pre-dawn hours to search and track the other terrorists down. Drones, helicopters and other surveillance equipment were also deployed. Finally, more than six hours after the initial gunfight ended, the Army found the ter rorists. Around 10.20 am another gunfight erupted about 1.5 km from the LoC, during which two terrorists and three Army soldiers were killed, Kalia said. 214 DONALD TRUMP Electoral college votes Electoral college votes 75,199,800 popular vote 70,804,676 popular vote 270 TO WIN Expect green card, H1-B visa squeeze to ease Pu s h ka r B anaka r @ New Delhi Up and down With Joe Biden set to enter the Oval Office in January the prot, estations of President Donald Trump notwithstanding, lakhs of Indians who head to the United States every year for studies, employment and immigration could heave a sigh of relief. In the four years of the Trump administration, it has not been smooth sailing for Indians for whom the US is a land of opportunities and a stepping stone for economic prosperity. From green card holders, students and H1-B visas, the numbers have been steadily going down. Take the lawful residence permits, or green cards. The road to the US has been bumpy since Trump took tenancy of the White House, resulting in a decline of Indians acquiring the Year Indians who got green card % increase/ decrease 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 69,162 69,013 66,434 68,458 77,908 64,116 64,687 60,394 59,821 54,495 ---0.2 -3.7 3.04 13.8 -17.7 0.89 -6.6 -0.9 -8.9 Source: Department of Homeland Security coveted residency permit. n 2010 when Barack Obama was President, more than 69,000 Indians got the green card (see table). The number peaked in 2014, when nearly 78,000 Indians managed to get it.But in the years since, and particularly after Trump became President, it has slowly gone down. Last year only about 54,000 Indians got the green card, registering a drop of 8.9% from the previous year. “Biden is likely to be more open to easing restrictions on visas and immigration. It is worth noting that he is the only presidential candidate to release an agenda proposal aimed at Indian-Americans, which among other things, lays out his plan for visas and immigration,” said Kriti Upadhyaya, a researcher at the Washingtonbased Center for Strategic and International Studies. She felt Biden would be more supportive of family-based immigration. Continued on: P7 While I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities - Kamala Harris, US Vice-President-elect Dissidents fail to get solid assurance, crisis in state BJP deepens So v i V i d yad h a r an @ T’Puram Attempts to quell the factional feud in the BJP state unit have hit a roadblock after dissident leaders led by Sobha Surendran failed to get a favourable response from the party leadership. The dissidents had demanded that leaders who have been sidelined in the state unit reorganisation, and also downgraded, be given befitting posts in the party . The infighting has made candidate selection for the local body polls a headache for BJP in many Do-or-die districts. The party has been unable to situation release the candidate lists in several districts. It was earlier announced that the Though stern process would be completed by Novemwarnings such as ber 5. However, the BJP core committee expulsion from has not been able to meet even once since BJP were indirectly the crisis began, as the RSS had directed issued to the that the key meeting be held after resolvSobha Surendran ing the present imbroglio. camp, the Union Minister V Muraleedharan had dissident leaders tried to reach out to the dissident leaders have stuck to their but they stuck to their initial stance, agstance as it’s a gravating the crisis. Meanwhile, it was do-or-die pointed out that many leaders, though situation for them. inducted in the state unit, have not been given charge of various districts. “The task of such leaders has been confined more or less to delivering the valedictory speech at district-level party meetings,” said a leader close to the Sobha faction. A state general secretary who preferred anonymity said BJP has set a target of winning a minimum of 7,000 wards in the panchayat elections. However, it knows the target can be realised only if dissident leaders are taken into confidence and the party functions as a single unit, he said. WITH THIS ISSUE THE ESSENTIAL CAMPUS DIGEST YOUR LIFE COACH 28 PAGES, INCLUDING 16 OF edex (TABLOID) J&K L-G pays tributes to slain soldiers J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha paid tributes on Sunday to the four security forces personnel killed in Kashmir. “The L-G saluted the supreme sacrifice of the jawans and lauded the courage and valour displayed by them while protecting the integrity and sovereignty of the country,” a spokesperson said Biden set to pick PIO doc to lead Covid task force K S h i v a K u m a r @ Mysuru With Democrat Joe Biden winning the US Presidency former US , Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy , who traces his roots to Hallegere in Karnataka’s Mandya district, is expected to take over as the head of the Covid-19 task force of the United States. President-elect Biden is likely to make an official announcement on Monday . Murthy is a former Vice Admiral in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, who served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States under former President Barack Obama. With the Covid-19 pandemic raging in the US, Dr Vivek will have a tough job on hand. Speaking to TNIE, his father Dr H N Narasimha Murthy confirmed that Dr Vivek will be named the head of the Covid Task Force on Monday. “We deeply appreciated all the prayers for Vivek’s success and his family when he was appointed as Surgeon General by then President Obama,” he said. Two soldiers, who were injured were evacuated to a military hospital for specialised treatment. The anti-militancy operation was still going on when the reports last came in. Defence sources said Sunday’s encounter was the second deadliest along the LoC this year. Sources added that the Army has beefed up security and antiinfiltration grid along the LoC, anticipating Pakistani attempts to push more militants into Jammu and Kashmir before the onset of winter. Interview ‘Worth printing notes for stimulus’ Delaying the enforcement of a strict lockdown would have helped lessen the economic impact of the pandemic, feels Economics Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee. Also, India could have printed notes amounting to 3% of its GDP and given it away to the people as stimulus. Even now, it’s worth printing and giving 1% of GDP to people, he feels Abhijit Banerjee Nobel Laureate in Economics full report: p7 express read Next round of talks with China soon New Delhi: In their recent military-level talks on LAC, India and China agreed to avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation. They decided to hold the next round of talks soon, indicating the Nov 6 round was inconclusive | P7 Biz failure, not fraud; Kamaruddin’s arrest due to politics: IUML E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Kozhikode A day after Manjeshwar MLA M C Kamaruddin was arrested in connection with allegedly duping depositors in his gold business, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leadership on Sunday came out in his support, saying that the arrest was politically motivated. After a high-power committee meeting at the League House in Kozhikode to discuss the issue, party national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty said there is nothing related to financial fraud, but it is a case of business failure. “Hence, there is no reason for demanding the MLA’s resignation at this stage. However, the money should be returned to all investors,” Kunhalikutty said, making the party’s stand clear. “The MLA’s arrest, which is a preplanned move to counter the corrup- P K Kunhalikutty tion allegations against the state government, does not have any legal backing. How can the police arrest a person whose business firm has collapsed? If this is the norm, several sitting LDF MLAs whose businesses have failed should also be arrested,” ● More on P4 said Kunhalikutty  . ‘Fashion Gold took deposits illegally’ Kasaragod: Investigating officers have said that M C Kamaruddin MLA’s Fashion Gold was illegally accepting deposits from the public at exorbitant interest rates, and the newer deposits or ‘investments’ were being used to service the old loans — a classic Ponzi model. Meanwhile, the police have issued a lookout notice against his business partner T K Pookoya Thangal after he is suspected of evading arrest. P4